Chapter Three: Second Declension
Masculine Nouns and Adjectives;
Apposition; Word Order
Jacqueline DiBiasie
Review!
• What are the cases in Latin?
– Nominative (subject), genitive (possession), dative (indirect
object), accusative (direct object), ablative (prepositions
• What is a declension?
– The listing of all the cases for a noun or adjective
• What are the first declension endings?
– A, ae, ae, am, ā, ae, ārum, īs, ās, īs
• What are the three genders in Latin?
– Masculine, feminine and neuter
• How do we find the base for a noun?
– Drop the ending from the GENITIVE case
• In what three ways must adjectives agree with nouns?
– CASE, NUMBER, and GENDER
The SECOND Declension
• Find the base in the same way as the
first
• New endings!
• Most end in –us, a few end in –er
Sg.
Ī
Nominative- Us
Ōrum
GenitiveĪ
Īs
DativeŌ
Ōs
Accusative- UM
Īs
AblativeŌ
VocativeE
Ī
To ‘Old MacDonald’
• Decline a second declension noun:
US-I-O-UM-O!
And then decline the plural noun:
I-ORUM-IS-OS-IS!
With the nominative first
And the genative next
Dative and accusative
Ablative and vocative
Decline a first declension noun:
US-I-O-UM-O!
The Second Declension
• The main vowel in
the first declension
was ‘A’
• The main vowel in
the second is
actually ‘o’
– The US in the
nominative and
the UM in the
accusative is
because of ‘vowel
weakening’
First and Second Compared
Sg.
Nominative- A
GenitiveAe
DativeAe
Accusative- Am
AblativeĀ
VocativeA
Pl.
Ae
Ārum
Īs
Ās
Īs
Ae
Sg.
Nominative- Us
GenitiveĪ
DativeŌ
Accusative- Um
AblativeŌ
VocativeE
Pl.
Ī
Ōrum
Īs
Ōs
Īs
Ī
Amīcus, Amīcī
Sg.
Nominative- Amīcus
Genitive- Amīcī
DativeAmīcō
Accusative- Amīcum
AblativeAmīcō
VocativeAmīce
Pl.
Amīcī
Amīcōrum
Amīcīs
Amīcōs
Amīcīs
Amīcī
Masculine nouns ending in -er
• If you follow the rule of always looking to the
genitive- they should be no problem!
Sg.
Pl.
Nominative- Ager
Agrī
GenitiveAgrī
Agrōrum
DativeAgrō
Agrīs
Accusative- Agrum
Agrōs
AblativeAgrō
Agrīs
VocativeAger
Agrī
Weird Vocatives
• All vocatives are the SAME as the nominatives
• EXCEPT the 2nd declension –us nouns in the
singular So all the boy names in the class
should have an –e as the vocative
– Marce!
– Sile!
• Nouns ending in –ius have an ‘i’ vocative
– Antoni!, Spuri! fīlī!
Apposition
• An APPOSITIVE is a noun positioned next to
other nouns in order to explain it.
– Ex. Sparky, my dog, is very fast.
• In Latin:
– Iulia, mea filia, est pulchra.
• BOTH NOMINATIVE
– Vergil, meus amicus,
habet multos amicos.
BOTH NOMINATIVE
Word Order
• As you have seen, it is not essential in Latin as it is
in English.
• Seen have as you,
not it is Latin in it is English
in essential.
• Typical word order in Latin:
– 1) Subject 2) Indirect Object
3) Direct object 4)adverbial phrases 5) verb
– SOV
– This is why the endings are so important! And why
you have to learn them by heart!
• Word order can be changed around for emphasis,
especially in poetry